Author / Owner

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Blocked on LinkedIn? Here's What You Can Do To Recover...

Booted, moofed, blocked, deleted....Are all of your comments and postings on LinkedIn groups suddenly disappearing in to the vast abyss of the moderation queue? When you keep seeing the message 'your comment has been submitted for review' after posting in every single group, then you may have been SWAM'd.

SWAM stands for site-wide automated moderation status. This happens when a group manager blocks you from a group. When that event takes place, all postings to all groups you are a member of go to the moderation queue for the manager to review and approve.

Frustrating? Yes, it is and I completely understand your frustration. One of the biggest mistakes I made early on as an SM manager was getting swamd due to overzealous posting. It was a painful lesson, and I do accept the double DA points for failing to read group rules before submitting those posts.

What can you do now? Believe it or not, you can recover from being swam'd. The first thing you need to do is re-read (or read for the first time) the group rules you are a member of. Somewhere along the lines, a rule got broken. Just accept that and move on.

Side note:
I know what you're thinking: how can Joe Blow who posts link after link after link not get blocked, but I do?Now, we can have a whole discussion about group fairness, and whether or not managers are correct in blocking some members and not others. We'll save this for another discussion because there is a lot to talk about that :)

Steps to SWAM'd Recovery:

1. Private message (PM) the group managers or owners (if possible).

To send a message to the group owner or manager, click on the 'i' for the group information, and then on the 'Group Profile' link. Hover over the name and click on the 'Send Message' link. All that is needed is a polite text asking to have your posts allowed through again. Remember, most group owners are unaware of their members being tagged with a swam'd status.

Be prepared: The group owner may or may not respond. Some owners are highly engaged with their members and may be willing to hear you out; others may not respond at all. This goes back to my side not about group management. There's more to talk about on that topic, but we will save it for another discussion.

If a send message link is not available, then the owner or manager has turned off the option to receive PM's from group member. If that is the case, you will only be able to PM the group leader if he or she is a connection.

If the group owner is unresponsive, or PM's are not possible, move on to step 2.

2. Dust yourself off and find another group to join.

There are over 1.4 million groups on LinkedIn. LI users are limited to 50 groups, so yes, there are plenty of other groups out there!

3. Read the Rules, and Follow Them!

To avoid reliving this headache after your on a 'free to post' status again, be sure to read the rules in all of your groups.

4. Start your own Group

You can create and own up to 10 groups on LinkedIn. Yes, there is work involved in growing a group membership, but as the owner, you can post what you want without the fear of getting SWAM'd.

I've recovered from the SWAM'd experience by following these steps, and you can too!